Wednesday, December 27, 2017

In the early 90s I invented a table top baseball game; I bought some 20 sided dice, put together some playing cards for all time franchise teams based on Total Baseball statistics, appropriated a board. It was fun; I made it through one season (Orioles/Dodgers made the World Series, I think LA won). This was all during law school and its fair to question if there was better use to be made of my time.

The internet sort of wiped out all that stuff.

Until now, as I'm putting the band back together. No more dice, a random number generator allows me to create player cards with a range of 1-1000. And the statistics are better, a combination of baseball-reference and Davenport Translations to produce sixteen all time 25 man rosters. I broke it down by decade; there's some competitive balance considerations in determining where to roster players, but I think I did a good job (some of the teams are intentionally not as competitive, you'll see that as I unveil the rosters) My plan is to play a season (ideally several seasons, it's designed with legs; if it works out this is a permanent addition) but it will be awhile before I've finished creating all the playing cards (there's math) so I don't have an ETA.

Every team has 16 position players and 9 pitchers. All 8 positions have a backup; one of those backups will serve as a DH, as pitchers won't bat in this league. Every team needs a lefty bench bat and a lefty bullpen arm. I've also chosen a coaching staff.

Here's the 19th Century team, the numbers are each players position rank (meaning, Ewing is the 9th best catcher of all time)

Monday, December 18, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are ERA+, innings pitched, WAR/Innings Pitched, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got starting pitchers carried out to 128 places for a project you probably aren't going to see; I'll limit that to 100 here, but I have 128.

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Tom Brady. Brady won in 2007; he joins Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods (both of whom won 3 times), Barry Bonds and LeBron James as two time winners. Coincidentally, his biggest competition this year was Federer - and he last won in 2006. I've been doing this my whole life really, maybe starting as long ago as '79; I have the full hard copy contemporaneous records since 1990 (someplace in the blog I posted each athlete of the month+runners-up for the years prior to publication). Here is each winner of my Athlete of the Year Award since 1990.

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Monday, December 11, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

The WAR number is a combination of B-Ref and Davenport, the best WAR that exists for historical comparison. Additional numbers are OPS+, plate appearances, WAR/Plate appearance, and the number of Most Valuable Player Quality Seasons (8 WAR seasons - 8 WAR is an MVPQ, 10 WAR is an EMVPQ, 12 WAR an EEMVPQ, 14 WAR an EEEMVPQ)

I've got each position carried out to 32 slots for a project that I don't believe fits this space, so I'll just include the top 25 here. I'll also include last player out. For some players, it's hard to slot them at a particular position (where does King Kelly go, for example) so I just chose one (if you don't see a first baseman in the top 25 who you know should be there, maybe he's a third baseman instead).

Each player is only listed with one team - the team that is most representative of his MLB performance. This is just merit, that's the only way I rank stuff - it's not social impact or the quality of their character. It's performance.